Simple and Plump Choux Pastry - flour

Method

• Line the baking sheet with baking paper and put in the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• (I used a 600W oven.)
• Sift together the cake flour and strong flour.
• Beat the eggs.
• Put the water, butter (cut into small pieces), and milk into a pan and bring to a boil.
• Turn the heat off when the butter has melted completely.
• Add the sifted flour all at once, and heat over low for 20 seconds, beating constantly until all lumps are gone.
• Add the beaten eggs to the mixture, a little at a time, and beat quickly.
• It is difficult to beat at first, though.
• If you hold the spatula and the paste drops very slowly, not runny at all, it is ready.
• Pipe the paste (about 4 cm in diameter) onto the heated baking paper.
• To make them voluminous, pile 3 to 4 layers so they look like soft serve ice cream cone tops.
• Moisten your finger with water and touch the tip on top to flatten.
• Make a shallow criss-cross slit on each top (this helps make the pastry plump)
• Spray a little water in top and bake at 190C for 20 minutes.
• Reduce the temperature to 180C and bake for an additional 10 minutes or so.
• After baking, leave the choux pastries in the oven for about 10 minutes without opening the oven door.
• You will have plump choux pastries.
• This pastry batter has some butter in it, so when you pipe the batter onto baking paper it might be too runny.
• In that case, adjust the amount of beaten eggs.
• You might think it is too stiff, but actually, you will have a better result this way.
• (In the photo, I used just 3/4 of beaten eggs.)
• I made these with strawberries and custard.